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(Washington D.C.)-
I rise in strong support of the bill before the House, the Solar Technology Roadmap Act.
The solar industry is one of the fastest growing energy industries in the United States. Solar companies, including United Solar Ovonic in Michigan, have been making cutting-edge advancements in both solar technology and manufacturing. The solar industry is already creating jobs in Michigan and across the country, and this energy resource has the potential to create thousands more jobs if we make the right investments.
You can’t begin a journey without knowing where you’re going. If we want to expand solar energy and renewable energy jobs here in the United States, then we need to have a plan to guide solar energy research, development and demonstration. This legislation directs the Department of Energy to assemble a group of experts from industry, academia, and government labs to create a roadmap of short-, medium- and long-term goals to guide and accelerate the development and deployment of solar energy in America.
A plan will only get us so far. In order for solar technology to reach its full potential, the federal government has to create a partnership with private industry, just as it has in other energy areas. In a word, working with the private sector, we need to invest wisely in this technology using the guidance provided by the research roadmap. The legislation calls for the Department of Energy to invest $2 billion on research, development and deployment of solar energy technologies over the next five years. It will be important for Congress to follow through and actually provide the funds to allow this to happen.
I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for the Solar Technology Roadmap Act.
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